Guesting with Ruby Naz | Introducing Nina-Marie

I would like to introduce you to my next guest and a very dear friend of mine, Nina (she’s also the one who designed this guest banner for me)! You can find other guests in other posts: Tiffany and Jessica!

Hi friends! My name is Nina-Marie Trapani and I am so honored and excited my sweet friend Ruby has me as a guest on her blog today! For those of you who are new to my work, I am a mid-20’s artist and card maker who loves art (of course!), computers, tea, cats, the ocean, and color! I hope you’ll enjoy my project I’ve created for you… keep reading to see more!

Tell us a little about yourself and your craft journey.

Since I was a kid I illustrated with charcoal and graphite; everything from portraits, to landscapes, animals and more. I was constantly studying books on illustration; copying the techniques and incorporating them into my own art. Being artistically inclined, over the past 10 years I ventured into acrylic painting, watercolor, beading, knitting, crocheting, latch hook, cross-stitch and scrapbooking. 2007 was when I first discovered card making and out of all the art forms I have explored, this was the one I loved the most.

Today I blog at ninamariedesign.com, where I share my card making journey with everyone. And I didn’t stray from my illustration days either… I also design stamps and dies, create graphic design projects and even web design.

What are you most grateful for in regards to crafting?

I am most grateful for all the friends I have made in the crafting community; my best friends are crafters and I am constantly blessed with their kindness, support and love.

What inspires you to create?

Everything and everyone! Sometimes I may see a gorgeous color scheme online, or a social media post of a fellow crafter’s most recent card… and other times, the strangest things inspire me to create something; maybe it’s a commercial on TV, or an ad in a magazine. I also oftentimes get ideas for things as I am laying in bed at night; if I haven’t gotten too tired, I’ll usually reach over for my phone and jot down a reminder for the next morning so that I remember the idea. Of course, the luxury of being able to write down the idea doesn’t always happen, so then I have to hope I remember the grand idea later on (which doesn’t always happen either, haha)!

How do you personally define success?

Success is different for all of us; it’s a unique, personal journey that can’t be defined a certain way to fit everyone. What is successful for one person, won’t be right for another. I think everyone should do what is best for their life, no matter what anyone else thinks of the choices you make, the paths you take and the outcome in the end. Because if YOU are satisfied with your life and your choices, then who can tell you that you aren’t successful with what you’ve accomplished?

What do you hope to improve on in the following year?

Sending out more cards! I make so many and most of the time I end up donating a large majority to card drives, non profits and assisted living homes. I always make sure to set aside a pile to use to send to friends and family, but I hate to say that I sometimes forget to do this. So that for sure is something I want to improve upon!

What is the most wonderful part of being you?

I think the most wonderful part about being me is knowing that God loved me so much that he created me uniquely different from everyone else; just like you are perfectly different from everyone else out there. We are all special in our own way and that’s what makes us wonderful.

What would you like to simplify in your life?

hmmmm… that’s a good question that I don’t really know the answer to yet. I am a keep-it-simple type of girl as it is, so when I do things my main objective is “how is the simplest way to do this”? My craft space is a perfect example of this; I have it organized to simplify my workflow. Making sure things are easy to get to, organized by color, brand, product type, etc. Right now I feel like overall, the controllable things in my life are simplified pretty well.

What advice do you have for new crafters?

Be YOU! Find what you are comfortable with and enjoy using most. Don’t stress about following a specific trend; if it attracts you, figure out how it best fits into YOUR style. Don’t try to fit yourself into the trend because then it becomes stressful. Crafting is meant to be fun, a relaxing escape, an expression of your creativity; it’s not a competition, or trying to be like someone else… it’s about being you, doing what you love to do, enjoying the process and having fun!

For my card I’ll be using Neat & Tangled’s Scored Shapes dies, and Awesome stamp and die set to create a fun dimensional background. I also wanted to stretch the use of my dies to create my own stencil, which also doubled as giving me the die cuts I needed for my background.

I started off by die cutting the entire surface of a piece of 6×6 cardstock with the hearts included in the Scored Shapes die set. Once the whole area of the cardstock was die cut, I set aside all the die cut hearts and began using the negative panel as a stencil; I lined my “stencil” over top of my A2 card base and ink blended some pink ink onto the card.

After ink blending the hearts onto my card base, I then adhered each die cut heart onto ink blended hearts (of the same sizes) on the card base. Because the hearts are scored, this allowed me to fold each heart in half a bit, add some glue to the folded area on the backside, and lay the hearts onto my card base. The die cut hearts are laid over my ink blended hearts at a slight angle, which allows the ink blending to show up better and makes the background appear even more full.

For embellishing, I applied Spectrum Noir clear sparkle over top of each white heart. I also stamped and die cut my sentiment for the card using the Awesome stamp and die set I mentioned previously.

I hope this card has inspired you to create a unique, dimensional background of your own!

If you enjoy my creativity, you can connect with me at my blog or on social media: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest! Also, be sure to leave a comment on this post and let me know what inspires YOU to create… I love finding out! Thanks for spending some time with me today and thank you so much Ruby for asking me to guest here with you!!

I love Nina-Marie’s work, she’s incredibly talented and her bright and colorful projects are particularly appealing to me! Loving the technique she used on her card today, I’ll definitely be pinning it and trying it myself!

This (as always) is a truly beautiful card Nina. I enjoyed the interview and learning more about you. You are as sweet as your voice implies. LOL
I agree with you totally on “doing what YOU enjoy” and not trying to imitate someone else’s work. As long as you are enjoying what YOU do, your cards will reflect that and you can only improve with time! TFS!